Infidel (2007)

She must have understood her life wrong; Islam is about peace. ( )

Almost gave it 5 stars. Highly recommended. ( )

This book is amazing. I actually listened to the audiobook read by the author. Ayaan is an amazing person and hearing her words in her voice just added to the impact of the book. She bravely shines a light into a world many people don't want the rest of us to see. This book should motivate anyone who reads to support her cause in improving the lives of women worldwide. ( )

Ayaan Hirsi Ali has my utmost respect for speaking out and telling the world about Islam, despite the threats she has faced her whole life and the killing of her Dutch film-making partner, Theo Van Gogh. Ayaan was born in Somalia, but her father was imprisoned or in hiding for openly opposing the Somalian leader. She and her younger sister were mistreated by everyone, including her mother and brother. Ayaan wanted to understand Islam, but there is only obedience, especially for women, and that was not in her DNA. Along with her mother, she lived in Saudi Arabia and Kenya, where she also did not fit. When she was eventually married off to a wealthy Somali businessmen in Canada, Ayaan fled from Germany during a layover, eventually crossing the border into Holland, where she applied and was granted asylum. While there, she was essentially reborn and able to obtain the education she was denied as a Muslim woman. She blossomed there, and was eventually elected to Parliament, before being politically pushed out for falsifying the facts presented in her asylum request (which she had always admitted.) A real eye-opener from a brave woman. Recommended, but not an easy read. 4.5 stars. ( )

"In Holland I have seen well-meaning, principled people blinded by multiculturalism, overwhelmed by the imperative to be sensitive and respectful of immigrant culture, while ignoring criminal abuse of women and girls." -Ayaan Hirsi Ali

This book really makes me reconsider my “live and let live” attitude to extremist religion. While my instinct is to regard them with my superior attitude of “Well, if they’re stupid enough to buy into that backward mumbo jumbo superstition, it’s because they want to live that life. What do I care?” But AHA’s position is that so many women have no recourse, even if they have the insight to question their subjugation. And that the majority have institutionalized this appalling abuse, and cannot conceive of another way. Even as we wish to remain politically correct, the brutal patriarchy and normalized mysogyny of Islam is absolute in vast parts of the world. Men there keep their power by means of obstructing female education, removing female sexuality, treating women as chattel, and repressing female individualism - as if it’s the role of women to keep their infantile men’s sexual thoughts in check. All of the advantages are for men, while the women can expect forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and physical and psychological abuse. We in the west should not turn our eyes away from the repressed in the name of multiculturalism. ( )